It's important to note that these buybacks — which are enormous
enough to sway markets — don't occur evenly throughout the year.

"Typically, we have a huge tailwind in December from buyback
action," JonesTrading's Dave Lutz observed on Thursday.
"Fascinating: November/December has combined for almost 23% of
annual buyback budgets from '07-'14(ex-'08)."

Lutz referred to a chart, which he recently identified as one of
the "Most
Important Charts In The World," showing what percentage of
annual repurchase spending occurs in each month.

"This tailwind vanishes quickly, as January only has 3% of the
total buyback allotments spent," Lutz noted. "Watch out for
[PowerShares Buyback Achievers ETF PKW] underperformance in the
early months of 2016 — Buybacks collapse in January."